Primary pyomyositis in an infant

Background : Pyomyositis is a subacute bacterial infection of the skeletal muscles. Its most common features are fever, muscle swelling, and focal pain. There have been insufficient data regarding pyomyositis in healthy infants. Case report : A one-month-old boy presented with an impairment of his left arm movement. He was well-nourished and not under any apparent distress. His vital signs were within the normal limits but neurological examination revealed left forearm paralysis. Physical examination showed no abnormal findings in the region from the left shoulder joint to the fingertips. Considering these factors, an intracranial pathology was initially suspected. However, he developed a fever, regular tachycardia, and swelling in the left forearm. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed inflammation in the left forearm muscles. He was diagnosed with bacterial myositis and started on intravenous antibiotics. On the 17th day, he was discharged with oral antibiotic treatment, which was completed over 25 days without any sequelae nor relapse. Conclusion : Here we report the case of Japanese primary pyomyositis following one-day afebrile upper limb monoplegia in an infant. Even when infants exhibit afebrile symptoms, a bacterial infection should be suspected

(1R*,2S*,4S*,5R*)-Cyclo­hexane-1,2:4,5-tetra­carb­oxy­lic dianhydride

The title compound, C10H8O6, a promising raw material to obtain colorless polyimides which are applied to microelectronic and optoelectronic devices, adopts a folded conformation in which the dihedral angle between the two anhydro rings is 55.15 (8)°. The central six-membered ring assumes a conformation inter­mediate between boat and twist-boat. In the crystal, mol­ecules are linked by weak C—H⋯O inter­actions, forming a layer parallel to the bc plane

Topology optimization of damping material for reducing resonance response based on complex dynamic compliance

In this research, we propose a new objective function for optimizing damping materials to reduce the resonance peak response in the frequency response problem, which cannot be achieved using existing criteria. The dynamic compliance in the frequency response problem is formulated as the scalar product of the conjugate transpose of the amplitude vector and the force vector of the loading nodes. The proposed objective function methodology is implemented using the common solid isotropic material with penalization (SIMP) method for topology optimization. The optimization problem is formulated as maximizing the complex part of the proposed complex dynamic compliance under a volume constraint. 2D and 3D numerical examples of optimizing the distribution of the damping material on the host structure are provided to illustrate the validity and utility of the proposed methodology. In these numerical studies, the proposed objective function worked well for reducing the response peak in both lower and upper excitation frequencies around the resonance. By adjusting the excitation frequency, multi-resonance peak reduction may be achieved with a single frequency excitation optimization.This research was partially supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers 25820422 and 25630436

EGUIDE project and treatment guidelines

Aim: Although treatment guidelines for pharmacological therapy for schizophrenia and major depressive disorder have been issued by the Japanese Societies of Neuropsychopharmacology and Mood Disorders, these guidelines have not been well applied by psychiatrists throughout the nation. To address this issue, we developed the ‘Effectiveness of Guidelines for Dissemination and Education in Psychiatric Treatment (EGUIDE)’ integrated education programs for psychiatrists to disseminate the clinical guidelines. Additionally, we conducted a systematic efficacy evaluation of the programs. Methods: Four hundred thirteen out of 461 psychiatrists attended two 1‐day educational programs based on the treatment guidelines for schizophrenia and major depressive disorder from October 2016 to March 2018. We measured the participants’ clinical knowledge of the treatment guidelines using self‐completed questionnaires administered before and after the program to assess the effectiveness of the programs for improving knowledge. We also examined the relation between the participants’ demographics and their clinical knowledge scores. Results: The clinical knowledge scores for both guidelines were significantly improved after the program. There was no correlation between clinical knowledge and participant demographics for the program on schizophrenia; however, a weak positive correlation was found between clinical knowledge and the years of professional experience for the program on major depressive disorder. Conclusion: Our results provide evidence that educational programs on the clinical practices recommended in guidelines for schizophrenia and major depressive disorder might effectively improve participants’ clinical knowledge of the guidelines. These data are encouraging to facilitate the standardization of clinical practices for psychiatric disorders

Insights into Land Plant Evolution Garnered from the Marchantia polymorpha Genome.

The evolution of land flora transformed the terrestrial environment. Land plants evolved from an ancestral charophycean alga from which they inherited developmental, biochemical, and cell biological attributes. Additional biochemical and physiological adaptations to land, and a life cycle with an alternation between multicellular haploid and diploid generations that facilitated efficient dispersal of desiccation tolerant spores, evolved in the ancestral land plant. We analyzed the genome of the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha, a member of a basal land plant lineage. Relative to charophycean algae, land plant genomes are characterized by genes encoding novel biochemical pathways, new phytohormone signaling pathways (notably auxin), expanded repertoires of signaling pathways, and increased diversity in some transcription factor families. Compared with other sequenced land plants, M. polymorpha exhibits low genetic redundancy in most regulatory pathways, with this portion of its genome resembling that predicted for the ancestral land plant. PAPERCLIP

Halogen-Bond-Assisted Guest Inclusion in a Synthetic Cavity

The confined space inside a self-assembled cage enhanced halogen bonding (XB) between iodoperfluorocarbons (XB donors) and NO3- anions or H2O molecules (XB acceptors), as confirmed by NMR spectroscopy in solution and by X-ray crystallography in the solid state. The cavity also bound an XB donor-acceptor pair, C6F3I3 and C6H5NMe2, in a selective pairwise fashion

The effect of working memory load on event-related brain potentials during lexical decision task

In this study, we investigated whether the working memory involved the post-lexical semantic integration process whereby semantic information was integrated into a higher level discourse representation. ERPs were recorded from twelve undergraduate and graduate students during the lexical decision task under low or high working memory load conditions. Perticipants decided whether target was a real word or not with keeping two or five digits in working memory. The N400 reflecting the ease of semantic integration were smaller for targets preceded by related primes than prededed by unrelated primes. This N400 modutation, however, was not affected by memory load. It is suggested that the different working memory subsystem for retaining digits is engaged in the semantic integration underlying the N400

Cytochrome P450 3As Gene Expression and Testosterone 6 beta-Hydroxylase Activity in Human Fetal Membranes and Placenta at Full Term

Expression levels of cytochrome P450 (CYP) 3A4, CYP3A5 and CYP3A7 mRNAs in placentas and fetal membranes, which were split into amnion and chorion leave attached decidua (chorion/decidua), obtained from pregnant women with normal delivery (5 subjects) and Caesarean section (15 subjects) were determined. These CYP3A mRNAs were also expressed in amnion and chorion/decidua together with placenta, although the expression level of these mRNAs was strikingly different between subjects. The expression level of the CYP3A4 mRNA in the placenta was about 2-fold higher than those in amnion and chorion/decidua. On the other hand, the expression levels of CYP3A5 and CYP3A7 mRNAs were highest in chorion/decidua. The immunologically related protein(s) with CYP3A7 was detected in all tissues examined. Testosterone 6 beta-hydroxylase activity in homogenate of human placenta, amnion and chorion/decidua were 26.6, 3.7 and 4.6 pmol/h/mg protein, respectively. These results suggest that CVP3As in fetal membranes have the metabolic function to protect the fetus from exposure to drugs.ArticleBIOLOGICAL & PHARMACEUTICAL BULLETIN. 33(2):249-254 (2010)journal articl

Domain structure of chemically thinned non-oriented electrical sheet

The anomaly factor tends to increase steeply when the thickness of non-orientedSi-Fe electrical steel sheets is decreased. To investigate the behavior of the anomalyfactor in relation to the sheet thickness, magnetic domain observation was performed,using the Kerr effect. Grains of a thinned sheet exhibit a stripe domain pattern. Thegrains exhibiting the stripe domains on the surface had closure domain structure in across section of the sheet. It was found that a field applied in the sheet plane inducedchanges of the magnetization component normal to the surface, which may increase theanomaly factor of thin sheets

Optimum Driving of Magnetostrictive Amorphous Wire Micro-Motor

Characteristics of a magnetostrictive vibration micro-motor were investigated in relationto a supporting position of a magnetostrictive amorphous wire for optimization of themotor. It was found that a vibration of the wire resembled a vibration mode of both endsfree and a maximum rotational speed was obtained by supporting the nodes of vibration